Kylie and Chad Watson (Photo courtesy Bro. Adam Brown) MUHLENBERG COUNTY, Ky. (2/26/14) – Chad Watson saw his world change forever Jan. 30, when he and his daughter, Kylie, lost the rest of their family of 11 in a Depoy, Ky. house fire.

SurfKY News talked with Watson Monday.

Watson said, "Sometimes it's hard to keep one thing in mind when you're going through your own grief...and I have been through a lot. But the fact is, everyone around me has gone through a lot as well. I wasn't the only one who grieved. I'm not the only one who is hurting. It may be appropriate to say that my pain is more than theirs, or more intense than theirs…or the loss is closer to me than it is to them.

But the truth is, and this is true of everyone. Everyone's tragedy is as big as it can be to them. There may be mothers and fathers who have lost children. Spouses who have lost their partner in life. There may be people who have lost their jobs. And that may be the biggest thing they have suffered.

While my tragedy has generated a lot of human interest, and garnered the attention of a lot of media outlets, the truth is, whatever tragedy a person has to deal with is enormous to that particular person.

God is gracious, it seems to me, in that He prepares us. I have never suffered anything like this. But He prepared me by having me feast on Christ. He prepared me by thinking about where people should turn in times of loss. He prepared me in being able to console others in times of loss, not even knowing the pain they were going through.

He prepared me for my own tragedy through many small steps along the way. But what I would say to people who are suffering, and who hear my story, is that I know that their hurt is just as great to them as mine is to me.

That's why I can say with a heart full of assurance, that it's the same God that rules over us both. And they can look to God and He is there to comfort them as he was there to comfort me. And, yes, He has been a great comfort. He has been a very great comfort.

God has a plan for my life. And I have had plans for my life all along the way. But my plans have never exactly been God's plan. We plan our lives as though we are writing the story of our life. But we are not. God writes the story of our life, and we have to trust the author.

So while I definitely have hopes for me and for Kylie. While I certainly have thoughts about the future, I am completely open to whatever direction God leads me."

Regarding the agonizing weeks he and his daughter spent recovering at Vanderbilt, Watson had this observation.

"I suppose this is not going to sound very spiritual, but I was pretty well consumed by my own situation while I was in the hospital. I was under for a week. I have no memory of the first week. When I woke up I pulled the oxygen tube out of my chest. They were scared at first, but then decided to see what would happen. I was fine. My oxygen saturation levels were able to stay up by themselves. So they took me off pain medicine. At least they took me off the iv pain meds and narcotics because they were concerned that my respiration was at such a fragile state that such pain medicine without assistance to my respiratory system might endanger my healing process. So I was on all the weaker pain medicines.

I suffered a lot of pain the first few days after I woke up. But that was good.

My pain was a gift from God because that pain was screaming at me about the reality of the situation. I had people around me saying it seemed so unreal, like a nightmare. It's so surreal. I did not have that experience at all. I had pain in my hands screaming at me at full volume.

This is real. This happened.

The pain was telling. Saying, you are suffering the consequences of the fire. So to escape from the physical pain, I would have to turn to the emotional pain and dwell there. It was back and forth between the two.

So that pain helped me to grieve.

It forced me out of my physical circumstances and into the emotional and spiritual realities that I had to deal with just to deal with the pain.

This was my existence in the hospital.

I was told my daughter was in better shape than I was, that she would be released before me. I was consumed by that. I had to get better to be there for Kylie. I couldn't let her be released without a father. I began to push myself as much as I could. I started to move my hands as much as I could, because the circulation helps the healing. I was consumed by my own situation.

I don't think that's wrong. I don't think when people are suffering from a tragedy and people are consumed for a moment by a tragedy, at some point in time I think that's normal. I think as people learn to cope with a tragedy that we have to learn how to get outside of ourselves and realize that we are not just here for ourselves, but we are also here for others...ultimately for the glory of God.

My time in the hospital was spent trying to get out so I could comfort others. It was me wanted to get out to take care of Kylie."

When Watson did get out of the hospital, he was only then told about the many people from around the county, the country and the world who offered assistance to he and Kylie.

"Nikki and I and the children struggled in a way that I won't even try to describe. But we had done it for so long, it became pretty run of the mill for us to have the perception that we're out here, we're on our own and we're trying to make ends meet. We're not relying on anyone else. That's just the way it was. We had made our life what it was and we were happy to do the best we could with it.

But when the county, and surrounding counties, and the nation...but especially Muhlenberg County, demonstrated the show of support that it did, and especially when they honored our family the way they did, I was truly touched.

Like I said on Sunday, it softened our sorrow. To God be the glory."

With that, Watson excused himself to spend some time with his daughter, Kylie.